weeh...at sch now doin wk at spring lab...so many things to tell...damn.not enough time.
Event rollback:
SMSS Humanities Challenge
240306-Friday,one week before humans competition
Before 1st recess:
seeing white spots.darn.why?wait.i think i remember this is a premonition.of what?man.cant think.chem now.cant think straight.white spots!!oh man...sudden headache.it hurts.still cant think why im seeing white spots.
for the past 2 weeks.din eat.din sleep.no life.damn tired everyday.my tests marks cannot make it too.
12.20pm:
now's physics..sick.my head's throbbing non-stop.cant take it anymore.feel kinda woozy.very hungry.didnt eat since morning after b'fast.stomach very empty.very weak.asked tan tai ha to release me to go restroom.nausea.stomach regurgitated.nuthin came out.oyea..i didnt eat anything.weaak and wooozy.didnt have the strength to climb back to class.rolled down to GO.went to sick bay.head is still throbbing.....arrggh.
12.45pm:
man.i was gonna die.stomach growling.head throbbing.what's worse?
crawled to the canteen.the kopitiam aunty was damn nice to me.i was about to buy ice milo.didnt know she had hot milo.she made a cup for me accompanied with fresh egg toasts.thank lord...i could have died.munching away, the pain subsided.well, a bit.
01.08pm:
climbing back to sick bay.cannot take it.head still cant take it.laid on the cushy mattress(it was pretty thin for a bed) .sleep.heal..heal head heal.no good.sudden feel of nausea again.no.lord.everything came out.the warm milo.churned with egg toast.the sink was pretty shallow and the darn sink trapcover didnt allow any of that gross suspension through.goodness.im dead this time.no choice.ah..facial tissue.one whole box.this is nuts man.stuck my habd into the warm milo thingy, found a plastic bag and started throwing whatever i could grab.then i saw those kind of restroom handtowels.it did a better job in cleaning up the mess.
01.36pm:
shucks.dj just called and i didnt pick it !i got to get the videocam from mdm tham.at 1.20 i suppose.she said she had to rush of to somewhwere.always seems busy..well,never mind.rushed of with the bag of puke and deposited into the trashbin,raced my way up the stairs.i saw her.oh noo.she looks impatient.told her that i was sick blahblahblah.she didnt give a damn.ohh well.partly my fault.cant she even show abit of her concern?
310306-the day of the humans challenge
We left early to prepare for the competition.we were confident; we were going to make a name for AHS.everything seemed fine,or so it seems.our third task-the video conferencing or the "news-caster-talks-to-correspondent" video was just fine.we reached SMSS early,about 3pm.just in time to test the cd on the computer.saw the other schools-RI,SJI,Hwa Chong,Zhong Hua.woww.powerful opponents.gotta be careful.yet we were still quite confident-their presence did not really intimidate us (yet i guess.) the emcee was this lady-she good-looking,prim-and-proper, deep-voiced and strong vocals.she briefed us about the whole procedure-the rounds and the rules that we as participants should abide;no cutting of the emcee before the question is read finish blahblah.the first round kicked start with the rapid-fire round,answering the questions on the screen with the so-awesomely-cool IR transmitor.the second section of the first round was the buzzer round.before the compe, we tested the IR receivers and buzzers.no problem.when we were trying to answer the 6th question of the buzzer round,"Which was the only airline that chose the new budget terminal?" of course, Tiger Airways!! i pressed the buzzer.no sound.thinking that i did not exert enough forced,i forced the buzzer in.deep in.chong lip pressed it forcefully too.no buzz!? impossible.cl was about to say"excuse me..er.."the emcee turned her head.goodness.we're done for.SJI lightly pressed the buzzer-Joseph Salim-this totally disgusting fat tall guy answered it in a most revolting prim-and-proper-elegant-mister-perfect voice.it irked me terribly.and he got the answer-that was the worse.and for all the rest of the 9 questions,no one heard nothing form Anglican.in the second round,show and tell the schools were given a box of 4 items-photograhs or object,we received 3 photos of-two people sitting in garbage and sewage,Taj Mahal and a bustling road in China most probably.the object was a porcelain windmill figurine-how are we supposed to link these 4 things up? humanity.yes,humanity.the bright and dark side of humanity, the by-products of humanity, the love and squalor of humanity.Joseph salim went up to give a comedian's speech-evidently he is born to be.but he is aint and never will be anywhere close to Russell Peters.he went rattling on about westernization that is brainwashing our culture(SJI was given a toddler's toy,two photograhs of MacDonalds and American Idol) and making us lose our racial relics.he was saying something like "stop westernization of we Asians..its harming our culture..our traditions..we are no more ourselves..."how bias can that be? Dj gave a good speech about humanity,although not as bombastic as Salim-but it was well-balanced;i strongly belive in being neutral yet not flimsy.the results came,us being the last again.*sighs*..The last round finally came.well,mic was saying that the rest of the schools would not use any computerised material to do their presentations because she saw them not testing them out on the laptop.oh man....they all did.sorry team.gave you guys wrong info.thats beside the point.the thing was that, we were third to present, and the first 2 presentations by Zhong Hua and SJI werent too promising-it lacked engaging with audience and creativity.a guy from SJI nearly got stunned on the spot when he forgot his lines.i was laughing to myself-we could grab that one and pull up our overall points.the starting was all smooth-no hiccups.Mic and Cl did their best-timing,accuracy and clear enunciation of each syllable-i was truly had to give it to them.everything was synchronised,precise,perfect.then,why did i have to screw everything up? dj and i were at the controls; i stood up from my original squatting position and unknowingly hit the mouse.some error popped up and i didnt come to it fast enough to realise that i did a grave mistake-the time was ticking.we lost approximately 20 seconds to fix the dumb mistake that dumb me had made.i felt so bad,but dj just "never mind"-ed it off.at 5min or so, the bell rang.my heart skipped a beat.mic and cl were so close to finishing,yet they shut the video.they had to.i guess the emcee gave us enough allowance although they did not bother about the time taken to resolve the error.Mic and Cl just had to sum up.it was brilliant,if not for the stupid thing i did.
i told myself,the money did not matter,the position did not matter,the glory did not matter.
things are not that superficial as they seem.
i could see from mdm tham's expression that,yes,she was disappointed.i mean,who wouldnt be? but what she did on the coach back to Bedok Mrt Station hurt me.Mic and i were sitting at the back of the coach;the supporters in the middle and cl,dj,mdm tham in front.i saw mdm tham pointing and speaking in accusing tones to dj-as i was afraid so that it might happen.
it did.
dj was the one that she entrusted the speech for the third round presentation with.she was evidently accusing him for not making the speech clearer in the sense of taking a stand, as the name implies taking sides.we did take a stand,yet not to a very bias extent.
Tell me.at school, all she does all the time when we are so tired,yet preparing for this challenge was to hurry us.for no reason.yes,for our sake.our time is precious,we have tests,the time is running late.
i understand.
did she care about the content of the presentation?yes after the challenge and no before it.she only cared for the quality and mode of presentation-maybe,she too,like us overlooked RI's ability to captivate the judges with dead boring,shrivelled-up PowerPoint slides.
it reflects badly as a teacher-i could not blame her for not caring for us enough as she was busy doing school stuff and the research being time consuming-but at least she could review what on earth we were doing all this while.
I do not blame anyone for us not getting first,second,or third-all that bothers me is our morality.is it declining rapidly that even the basic responsibilities of a teacher is to be carelessly overlooked? yes,we may have taken a long time to prepare the video and everything,yet being a leader,a figure of whom students look upon can shake us off when we need help?
the failure of our education system,and we the contaminated,mutilated by-products of it.
sad huh.
dont be.im not.i recited this to many people,and my emotions experience a rollercoaster everytime i repeat it - it will always,forever remind me of the experience that no one on earth will ever gain - at the SMSS Humanities Challenge o6.
(P.S:If you are mic,dj,or cl reading this-rejoice.we rule,and that's a fact.)